Louisville-area software developers and technology entrepreneurs are being encouraged to participate Saturday in the National Day of Civic Hacking.
The White House is helping push the initiative, which is being hosted in over 90 cities nationwide in what will likely be an annual event. The idea is to find innovative ways to use public data.Louisville technology entrepreneur Michael Schnuerle organized Louisville’s Hack for Change day. He says it’ll be similar to previous events in Louisville like the technology transportation camp and the Hack-A-Thon earlier this year, where Schnuerle SafetyCheck app won first prize.The app takes city crime data and gives you a 1 through 10 rating of the neighborhood you’re currently in.“We have our own formula for the methodology to come up with the score and it’s based on type of crime, recentness of crime, distance from you, to the types of crime. And then whenever you want to you can drill down to the list of crimes of in area so you can get a feel for why that score is the way it is," he says.Lexington is also hosting a Civic Hacking event this weekend. Louisville’s event is Saturday at the University of Louisville’s downtown iHub office. “This is about collaboration, community building, raising awareness for what can be done with public data," he says.
